Rating wars: the summer TV shows make the finale

the summer TV shows

Fans of Turkish TV shows await the results of their favorite projects with fear and hope. Alas, this summer’s ratings are not comforting, we have already started receiving information about the series finals and this is just the beginning. What summer projects will be canceled in the near future?

The summer of 2021 turned out to be extremely unfortunate for most of the summer television season series. If in previous years romantic summer comedies could be performed with a rating of 5-6%, and sometimes even 10%, then this year, 3% is already considered as quite a decent result. Both the consequences of the pandemic (Turkish viewers simply do not want to stay home after a year of isolation) and the advent of digital platforms that have drawn a large part of the audience have been cited as the reason for this sharp loss of interest in the series.

The first victim of the new situation on the series market was the project of the OJO Pictures company Glass ceilings. And here is the new finale. As it became known, the series Recipe for Love / Aşkın Tarifi starring Kadir Doğulu and Serra Aritürk makes the finale on the 13th episode, that is, in three weeks.

Note that the 13 episodes are a format that allows the series to be sold to foreign partners, splitting each episode into two 40-50 minute parts and making an international version in 26 episodes. It is not hard to predict that this will be the case for almost every summer TV shows of this season. According to experts, the series Game of Luck, Island’s Tale, Trouble on my head and Love by Chance will make the final in September.

The TV shows Love. Logic. Revenge and Heart Wound, which show much better results in the ratings, have a small chance. However, much will depend on how many TV series the channels have ordered for the main autumn-winter television season and whether they have any available spots. The behavior of the spectators in the fall will also be of great importance.

The biggest mystery of the new season is whether the audience will return to TV screens, or will the drop in ratings affect the shows of the main season as well? According to experts, ordinary viewers of the total category are likely to prefer their favorite entertainment and return to the screens. However, the educated and wealthy AB audience that has gone to the platforms may remain there, returning to the screens only in exceptional cases when the TV shows will indeed attract a great deal of interest. This can negatively affect the financing of the series, which means that decisions to cancel them will be made more quickly and ruthlessly.

However, this is not all the bad news for traditional television. In 2022, 4 digital platforms will be launched in Turkey at once – HBO Max, Disney +, Amazon Prime and TRT Digital. They will begin to attract not only the AB audience, but also the average total viewer. Let’s not forget about Netflix, which has just started ramping up production of TV series in Turkey.

A big redistribution of the market is coming, perhaps in a few years the TV rating of 1% will look quite optimistic. In any case, the example of countries in which digital platforms have already entered the market is a case in point.